New Troop Open House

[roberthynesii]

Good Afternoon Scouters,

Our CO currently has a Cub pack that feeds the local Scouting Troops. Its a small town and we have about 20 Cubs spread across our dens. There is interest from inside our group to stand up the Scout Troop with support and encouragement from our CO. There was a troop previously that folded about ten years ago. To gauge interest and set our net as wide as possible we plan on having an open house for all our perspective scouts. 

The Pastor of our CO is spreading the word to all the local churches without Youth Groups and we are in contact with the local LDS church to see if we can persuade some of their  members to continue in Scouts as well with the LDS withdrawing. The local elementary and middle schools will be sent flyers and the PTA will support us. 

I have read about an ideas to help with recruitment, for a school talk or open house Setting up a "campsite" with tents and stoves and a canoe.  

What have you found to be effective at triggering a sense of adventure ?

Selling the soon to be scouts that Scouting is for them ? 

STEM ? Outdoor Excursions ? Merit Badges ?

 

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

 

Robert  Hynes 

 

[Setonfan]

Best of luck, Robert!  One thing you might consider is having the prospective Scouts that you know of, write down a list of 4 or 5 of their friends.  You can then invite them directly to an open house.  Seeing friends who are interested is a big draw for that age group.  Setting up a campsite has been effective for a lot of troops.  One that I participated in, we set up on a Saturday at a local park, invited as many as possible and did some dutch oven cooking, eggs in a paper bag, etc. Also made sure to have pictures and displays of the most adventurous things the troop had done- or plans to do in the coming year.

If the school will let you in, a talk with students with props (backpack, stove, etc.) and emphasizing how Scouts do adventure activities, but also care for the environment (leave no trace camping), allows you to talk about activities leading to awards.  At the open house, that's a good place to share with parents how STEM activities and merit badges enhance learning objectives in a complimentary way with what they learn in school.  Lastly, it's good if parents understand how the patrol method and Scout Oath and Law fosters character development, community service and teaches how to be not only a good leader, but good follower. 

[mrkstvns]

22 minutes ago, roberthynesii said:

...

I have read about an ideas to help with recruitment, for a school talk or open house Setting up a "campsite" with tents and stoves and a canoe.  

What have you found to be effective at triggering a sense of adventure ?

Selling the soon to be scouts that Scouting is for them ? 

STEM ? Outdoor Excursions ? Merit Badges ?

 

I think that emphasizing outdoor adventure is the key to attracting most boys. Camping, canoeing, etc. are obvious places to start.

If you've got some older, more experienced scouts at your disposal, a cool "demo" might involve a pioneering project (like a rope bridge). (Assuming you can manage the safety issues, of course.)

[SSScout]

Here is one  classic outline :  http://www.inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm 

Publicity is your goal.   Contact the local TV news, they would love to have a "human interest" story about the "NEW" (Boy) Scouts....   and , yes, there is a "local" TV news, you have to look for it.

Same for the newspapers....   

Good Scouting to you !

 

 

[1tree]

While it doesn't go into the part you are looking for here I would encourage you to look through my presentations from UoS on starting a new troop. Perhaps cover some of the things you haven't considered.

http://t243sachse.org/index.php/university-of-scouting/2019

 

[roberthynesii]

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions, I appreciate all the great input. I am leaning towards a static campout setup for the potential Scouts to check out.  The committee has equipment from a few years ago before the Troop had to fold.  So it shouldn't be too difficult to get something going to peak some interest.

Does Anyone have any flyers for the High Adventure camps ?

Philmont Scout Ranch High Adventure Base

Florida Sea Base ?

Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve ?

 

Thanks again.

 

Robert 

[FireStone]

I run recruitment for my Pack and we did an open house with a camping setup back in September. We used the gym at our CO and set the room up with tables in a "U" shape. Scouts/families come in one door, proceed to table #1 (Pinewood Derby building demo),  table #2 (fishing gear demo, with glass jar of worms in dirt, which was a huge hit), table #3, and so on, 7 themed tables in all and then a sign-up table at the end.

In the center of the "U" of tables we had our indoor campsite. Tent, chairs, sleeping bags, fake campfire (foam logs and rocks made by a leader, fake flame on top with one of those light/fan fake fire things). We used an old tent because as expected, the kids wanted to climb into it and it took some abuse throughout the event.

Overall it was a huge success. We doubled the size of our Pack that night. One of our district execs came out and he told me he's never seen a recruitment event like ours.

The goal was to bring some of the "adventure" indoors, show families what we do, as best we can show it in a gym at night. I think it worked. I will plan a few things differently next time (I'd still like to figure out an easy way to serve smores without making a colossal mess), but we are already planning to repeat this event with the same format next fall.

Edited February 12, 2019 by FireStone

[roberthynesii]

10 minutes ago, FireStone said:

I run recruitment for my Pack and we did an open house with a camping setup back in September. We used the gym at our CO and set the room up with tables in a "U" shape. Scouts/families come in one door, proceed to table #1 (Pinewood Derby building demo),  table #2 (fishing gear demo, with glass jar of worms in dirt, which was a huge hit), table #3, and so on, 7 themed tables in all and then a sign-up table at the end.

In the center of the "U" of tables we had our indoor campsite. Tent, chairs, sleeping bags, fake campfire (foam logs and rocks made by a leader, fake flame on top with one of those light/fan fake fire things). We used an old tent because as expected, the kids wanted to climb into it and it took some abuse throughout the event.

Overall it was a huge success. We doubled the size of our Pack that night. One of our district execs came out and he told me he's never seen a recruitment event like ours.

The goal was to bring some of the "adventure" indoors, show families what we do, as best we can show it in a gym at night. I think it worked. I will plan a few things differently next time (I'd still like to figure out an easy way to serve smores without making a colossal mess), but we are already planning to repeat this event with the same format next fall.

Wow doubled the size ? That's great! did the numbers stay up for the duration of the year ? 

[Eagledad]

3 minutes ago, FireStone said:

The goal was to bring some of the "adventure" indoors, show families what we do, as best we can show it in a gym at night. I think it worked. I will plan a few things differently next time (I'd still like to figure out an easy way to serve smores without making a colossal mess), but we are already planning to repeat this event with the same format next fall.

Run your Fall open house a couple of weeks before Cub recruitment night in September, and be sure and get the names and phone numbers of all the youth who visited. Make sure the list is divided up into age groups. Call the parents and explain that you are building the dens and you are just verifying they are still interested. If yes (and most are), ask the parent if they would be interested in being one of the den leaders. Make sure you use plural leaders so they don't feel singled out as THE leader. Its a couple hours of calling, but in most cases we had all our dens built and ready to go before Cub recruitment night. If you get enough new leaders, you might even be able to get District to send a trainer for a private Den Leader training session before they do their official district training. You will be rocking and rolling right out of the box.

Barry

[SSScout]

You must make the acquaintance of your DE, of course.  Your Council should have a "High Adventure Committee" or some sort of Camping promotion committee. Look there for brochures and you can email Bechtel and Philmont and Mount Katahdin and Sea Base and Northern Tier too directly. They will all gladly send you stuff. 

Edited February 12, 2019 by SSScout

[roberthynesii]

4 minutes ago, SSScout said:

You ust make the acquaintance of your DE, of course.  Your Council should have a "High Adventure Committee" or some sort of Camping promotion committee. Look there for brochures and you can email Bechtel and Philmont and Mount Katahdin and Sea Base and Northern Tier too directly. They will all gladly send you stuff. 

We have our Commissioner and the DE involved. But I will have to get some emails out to  get current info on the treks. It would be great to have some on hand for the open house. 

[Treflienne]

On 2/3/2019 at 3:15 PM, 1tree said:

While it doesn't go into the part you are looking for here I would encourage you to look through my presentations from UoS on starting a new troop. Perhaps cover some of the things you haven't considered.

http://t243sachse.org/index.php/university-of-scouting/2019

 

Thanks.   I have a couple of questions about your presentation.

With a single-patrol troop why have both an SPL and a PL?   What are the distinct differences between the roles in that setting?   I  seem to recall other discussions here which came down opposed to having both in a single patrol troop.    This is a practical question for a newly organizing troop.

[shortridge]

5 minutes ago, Treflienne said:

With a single-patrol troop why have both an SPL and a PL?   What are the distinct differences between the roles in that setting?  

You only need an SPL when the PLC says it needs one. The PLs can jointly manage things until that point. Then the SPL leads the PLs, and the PLs lead their patrols. IMO, Patrol Leader is the most important job in any troop.

[1tree]

On 2/12/2019 at 6:35 PM, shortridge said:

You only need an SPL when the PLC says it needs one. The PLs can jointly manage things until that point. Then the SPL leads the PLs, and the PLs lead their patrols. IMO, Patrol Leader is the most important job in any troop.

Yea, some of us don't live in the pristine world you believe in.

Here is the thing - a new troop likely doesn't know what scouts is about. They don't know what program they want. They don't know how to begin to assemble it. Follow the standard shrink wrapped advice and you end up the norm: new troop dead in under three years.

For all the posturing there are a number of realities that keep getting glossed over. First is the Baden Powell came to a movement which was already happening without him and happened to use his book. Second, kids are different now then they were then. The world has changed drastically over the years. My dad went hunting with his patrol after school one day. They all took their guns to school in the morning and headed out looking for rabbits at the end of the day. Imagine your scouts doing that today.

Also, what is the age group of your scouts? Chances are we are talking about an average age of about 10.9 years old. Do you really believe that a newly minted AOL is ready to lead a troop and run a program with minimal adult intervention? And just how is the PL going to teach scouts to start a fire? or tie the knot they don't remember? Oh yea, they will simply read the book. Because oh yea, nothing spells adventure like studying from the book. 

Now as to why have an SPL when you have one patrol?

• It divides the amount of work an 11 year old needs to do.
• It helps set the knowledge of what is troop and what is patrol.
• My scouts responded quite well to having the positions there.

Sorry for the delay in response. I stand by my presentations. I don't consider myself an expert, but unlike some I have actually gone from nothing to a troop making it past the three year mark.

[Mom2Scout]

Our troop has two packs from which they get their Scouts.  Recruitment is us showing up at orientation and school events and being available.  Have your AOLs recruiting their friends.  Many think you have to be a cub scout to be a Scout.  My kid has been recruiting females for the female troop we stood up in February. 

What you could do is borrow some older Scouts from another troop that can talk to all the kids about Scouting adventures they do.  Your DE might be able to help you find some Scouts eager to help you out.  

Good luck!